More than 50% of the million Spaniards of the
province live in Zaragosa, which lies midway between Madrid in the north and Barcelona on
the Mediterranean to the south. The city is important to pilgrims, as is Santiago de
Compostela. A legend says that Jesus' mother, Mary, was seen on a pillar on the
river bank by St. James and that she asked him to build a church on that spot.

The famous Spanish painter, Francisco Goya, has
several paintings and drawings in the local
Museum of Zaragoza on the Plaza de los Sitos.
A local tradition is for men who admire Goya's work to drive to Cartuja de Aula
Dei, a Carthusian monastery about 7 miles north of the city, to view almost a dozen of his
murals on the lives of Jesus and his mother that have been restored.

Goya's birthplace, a small cottage in Fuendetodos, a
village about 16 miles southeast of the city, has also been restored for visitors.

As the map indicates Zaragoza is in northeastern
Spain on the the Ebro river; it is the capital of its region, Aragon, and Zaragoza
Province. Being urban, the city includes manufacturing and commerce, fostered by its
location on the main north-south and east-west rail lines of Spain. The main
products of the city are cloth, farm equipment, sugar, concrete, and glass.

Being a European city, Zaragoza has preserved its
architecture, especially La Seo Cathedral from the 1300's to 1700's and the El Pilar
Cathedral that dates from the 1600s. This cathedral's walls hold frescoes done by
different famous Spanish painters. The Castillo de la Aljaferķa was a fortress erected by
the Moors who occupied part of Spain until nearly the 16th Century, which later became the
home for the king of Aragon. An opulent commerce building, the Lonja (the Exchange)
dates from the Renaissance. The University of Zaragoza dates from 1533.

Zaragoza originated from a pre-Christian settlement
called Salduba, which the Romans occupied a few decades before Christ. They renamed
the village "Caesaraugusta," a name that was corrupted into
"Zaragoza." Before the Moors captured Spain, the Visigoths and before them the
Suevi, occupied the site. For nearly 400 years, Zaragoza was the capital for the Kingdom
of Aragon, until Aragon was united with Castille by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
in 1469, the royal couple who financed Columbus.

A later distinction for the city was its resistance
to French forces in the first years of the Peninsular War from 1808 to 1814.*

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*Application Question: Can you make a
connection between this fact about the Peninsular War and the character Jig in the story?

* Is it possible that Hemingway would have known about
the valiant defense of Zaragoza? Actually, it's very likely, since he
traveled in Spain during the 1920s, such as organizing
vacation tours for groups of friends to Pamplona and other places; he lived
in Spain and worked there as a war correspondent in the 1930s during the Spanish Civil
War. It's possible to read this story, then, seeing Jig as valiantly resisting her
besieging lover (or is the American her husband?), taking a stand for the way of life she
wants.

The map was
downloaded from http://www.spainonline.com and
may not be copied for profit, even though it has been replaced
(by 2003) at this Spanish-language
site by a more detailed and colorful map that actually shows Zaragoza.

The URL for this page is:
http://vccslitonline.vccs.edu/copy_of_hills/Zaragosa.htm